What to do with Morels (& other 'shrooms too!)

You probably remember all the photos I've posted of the morels I've picked this season:
(I very carefully rinse them out since bugs & slugs seem to like the morels too...it's not a fun task!)

This is what I did with some of that sink full of morels:

(they rehydrate beautifully in some water...of course they won't look like the original mushroom but it's a convenient way of storing lots of morels)

And this is what I made with the rest of that sink full of morels- a Morel with Chives and Jarlsberg cheese Quiche. You can find the recipe here (the original calls for scallions & gruyere but I have plenty of chives in the garden & jarlsberg cheese in the fridge). Funny how I always seem to forget to take the Before photos. Here are a few GIANT morels I found (and then I found more- enough to fill a grocery bag):

How I wish I had photos of some of the other meals we've created using morels! You'll just have to use your imagination as I describe the meals with morels to you, okay?


First up: Morel Cream Sauce served over Fettucini noodles. We usually just wing the recipe but it's something like this: saute minced shallots in some butter, add morels, let cook for a few minutes, add some white wine &/or chicken stock and heavy cream, let simmer until thickened. This sauce is excellent over noodles, chicken, steak, salmon......ice cream (just kidding). Basic but oh so Evil! :)


Next up: The morel quiche shown above. Absolutely divine with a simple salad (I made a grilled romaine salad with shaved parmesan cheese & croutons).


Third: Positively divine scallops served with morels and asparagus. Okay...Mark came up with this one and he didn't measure anything. He made a sauce by first sauteeing minced garlic and ginger in some butter. Then he added soy sauce, orange juice and chopped chives from the garden and simmered it until it reduced to a nice glaze/sauce. He poured that off into a bowl and then seared the scallops (just a few minutes on each side- you don't want to cook these too long!) in that same pan. We served the scallops over udon noodles and drizzled them with the glaze. I cooked the asparagus (I lopped off the woody ends and cut the asparagus into 1" pieces) in a little bit of olive oil in a skillet (not too long). I added a handful of chopped up fresh morels, soy sauce and minced ginger. I let it all steam for a few minutes. We served the asparagus and morels along side the scallops. Oh...it was good!


Other things we've done with morels....
Potato and Wild Mushroom Napoleans from Emeril


Seared Scallops with Morels - I was actually going to make this recipe in place of the one above. I'd already gotten started cooking it and after adding the balsamic vinegar I noticed that there were solid chunks in my bottle of balsamic vinegar! So in the trash it all went. Blech! (fortunately I hadn't started cooking the scallops so not all was lost.)


I know there are more recipes out there that I've tried but I can't think of them at the top of my head!


Oops..I almost forgot! Go check out Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and all the other Tasty Tuesday posts!